There were many, many nights we sat in the hot tub, very large glasses of ice water at our elbows, music coming through the open windows from Leonard's floor to ceiling speakers, and talked about anything and everything for hours and hours.
By the way...the instructions on how to use the stereo attached to those speakers were three, single spaced, typed pages.
We met in science fiction fandom, but as we talked it began to be clear that we had many interests in common. We had similar tastes in music, TV shows, and similar attitudes towards lifestyle and philosophy. Yet, at the same time, there were enough differences that we both had new things to introduce to the other. In the first long conversation we had, Leonard told me about cryonics. I told him about something called The Expanded Family Network. As we got to know each other, we exchanged books, showed each other our favorite films, took turns playing music we liked. We introduced each other to our friends.
I loved taking trips with him in his various sports cars, looking for the best roads to travel, more music playing.
And always, throughout the time we spent together there was the talking and the laughter. I loved the sound of his voice, and his laugh.
He was a man of many talents. I will always cherish the leatherwork items he made for me. My experience was that almost anything Leonard decided to learn, he pretty much mastered. In addition he was generous, willing to share his knowledge and expertise.
As I'm sure you will hear from others, Leonard was also a great cook. I miss his mac and cheese, his spaghetti, and his chex mix. Parties at his house were a great deal of fun.
There are many things that he introduced me to that are still part of my life: from a favorite brand of coffee, to the fact that computers could be used for much more than word processing, games and data entry. Leonard got me my first email account. He built computers for me. He introduced me to the internet.
Leonard set an extremely high standard for anyone who came after him. I will cherish his friendship for the rest of my life.
To conclude, Jane Robinson, who was also a friend of Leonard's, and wanted to be here this weekend, but had a long standing commitment out of town, wrote this poem for Leonard, and asked me to read it for her.
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there is a problem using only one kind of steel for fine blades.
if it's hard enough to hold an edge
it's too brittle to withstand a blow
if it's resilient enough to withstand a blow
it won't hold an edge
how many of us have trusted our lives to fragile weaponry
whose beauty deceived us and betrayed us
in the heat of battle
ages ago swordmakers discovered the art of placing
hard and yielding steel back to back
then folding and hammering them out
as much as a dozen times
until strength and resilience
were woven and welded inseparably
the resulting steel is trustworthy
and wears its complexity in exquisite patterns
and deep into its heart
metallurgic ordeal by fire and ice
completes the initiation and the tempered steel
takes on a life of it's own
a Damascus blade wears it beautiful strength
all the way through to the soul
deception impossible
betrayal unthinkable
i have friends like that
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Addendum by Jan
Lola sent me an email that was far to "Leonard" to let it pass without getting said here:
There are two "rememberences" that occured to me as I was thinking about the memorial. The first was just a realization...
It was clear from listening to Leonard's technical peers and co-workers, that he's considered, by many anyway, to be a genius. I remember getting that from reading the comments posted soon after his death, too. But in all the time I knew him, I only remember once where he boasted to me about anything technical he had done (it was the fact that he was a gnu-emacs wizard, and that anyone who wanted to know anything about it came to him). It strikes me as significant that he was so secure in his abilities and talents, that he didn't need to toot his own horn...and that my impression was that his focus was always on the next challenge, not what he had already accomplished.
The other thing I remembered were times I would somehow get myself jammed up
when I was first learning how to use email, and emacs (before Windows :-).
Leonard, would look over my shoulder at what I had done, ask me to move, sit
down, fingers poised over the keyborad and say, "Now I'm going to invoke
magic".
And he would fix it.